Questions To Ask People We Want To Mentor, Including Students (& Ones We Might Want To Ask Ourselves)

The New York Times ran an interview with Tony Tjan. I had never heard of him — he’s a venture capitalist from Boston. Whoever he is, and whatever his qualifications are or are not, he lists five good questions to ask people you might want to mentor. I’d say they are good ones to consider asking our students, and ones that we should regularly ask ourselves, too:

There are six questions to pose to someone you’re trying to be a mentor to:

What is it that you really want to be and do?

What are you doing really well that is helping you get there?

What are you not doing well that is preventing you from getting there?

What will you do differently tomorrow to meet those challenges?

How can I help?

Where do you need the most help?

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Should there be any more questions asked to insure that everyone is getting the maximum benefit?